Five Plates, Four Sets Of Cutlery, Zero For Me Chapter 03

Five Plates, Four Sets Of Cutlery, Zero For Me Chapter 03

On Wednesday, after I finished handing off my last assignments, I packed up my personal things.

The creative director suddenly called me into the conference room. The shortlist for the next round of marketing design projects was spread across the large display.

“Natalie, did you submit this?”

The director tossed a folder toward me. When I opened it, the cover was one I knew far too well.

It was the set of design concepts I’d worked overtime to finish the month before.

The key visual, color palette, and layout were identical.

But the credited name was Yew Studio.

That was where Sadie worked.

“I didn’t submit it.”

The director frowned.

“The company plans to move forward with this direction next month. The legal team is already checking the timeline because the concepts overlap.”

“Did you give your designs to anyone?”

It was the height of summer, but I felt cold in that conference room.

That night, I set the folder on the coffee table.

“Sadie, did you submit this?”

Sadie was lounging on the couch, eating an apple. She looked at the folder, and the hand holding the apple went still.

“Nat… where did you get that?”

“I asked if you submitted it.”

“I did.”

She set down the apple, and her voice quickly softened.

“I just wanted to give it a shot. I never thought it would make the cut. Nat, did I mess everything up?”

As she spoke, her eyes immediately filled with tears.

My brother brought over a plate of washed grapes. He looked at the papers on the coffee table, then at me.

His voice was calmer than I expected.

“It’s only one set of design concepts. Why are you scaring her?”

“Owen, this was a project submission at my company. Legal is already investigating.”

“We both studied design. Do you think I don’t understand that?”

He sat beside Sadie and pushed the grapes closer to her.

“How big is your company? How much could one shortlisted concept really affect it?”

Dylan leaned against the wall and chimed in.

“Exactly. Nat, your company is huge. It isn’t going to miss one design. Let your cousin benefit from your work.”

“Benefit from my work? I spent a month working overtime on that.”

They only considered whether the company would suffer any major consequences. None of them considered what it meant to have a month of my work handed over in an instant.

Dylan laughed.

“There you go again. Why do you have to turn every little thing into a crisis?”

Evan was the last one home.

When he saw everyone gathered in the living room and the papers on the coffee table, he understood immediately.

He didn’t look at me. He looked at Sadie first.

“Why are you crying? Nat isn’t going to blame you.”

He took his time hanging up his coat before sitting down beside me.

“Nat, don’t hold it against Sadie.”

I turned to Evan.

“You think this is my fault, too?”

He gave a small, helpless laugh and softened his voice.

“I didn’t say you were wrong. I just mean we don’t need to make this into something bigger than it is.”

Right on cue, Sadie came over and took my arm, her voice breaking.

“Nat, I’m sorry. I honestly had no idea this would happen.”

“I saw your designs on the table and thought you weren’t using them. I figured I could try submitting them.”

The longer she talked, the more tears slipped down her face.

My brother frowned at once.

“See? Why did you have to make Sadie cry?”

Dylan tried to smooth things over, too.

“Okay, okay. We’re family. Don’t let something this small come between us.”

Evan pulled out a tissue and handed it to Sadie.

“Here. Wipe your eyes. Nat didn’t mean it that way.”

Every one of them rushed to comfort her.

No one asked whether the director had given me a hard time.

No one cared what those few minutes in the conference room had felt like.

No one thought about how I’d survived that brutal month.

Exhaustion washed over me.

I was so tired I did not even have the strength to demand an explanation.